The race between Deeds and McDonnell continues to be close. Most polls show McDonnell at 48%, Deeds at 43% with 8% of those interviewed undecided. The margin of error is about 4.
Former Governor Linwood Holton who was Virginia governor between 1970-1974 has endorsed Creigh Deeds for Governor. Linwood Holton ran against the Byrd Machine in Virginia and also fought against welcoming the defecting conservative Democrats into the Republican Party. Holton’s governorship was a pivotal point during which time many Democrats and Republicans switched parties.
His daughter is Ann Holton Kaine and is married to current Governor Tim Kaine
This is good. Hope Deeds wins. McDonnell is opposed to women and minorities holding jobs. We can’t have an extremist like McDonnell as our Virginia governor.
A vote for Deeds is a vote for big labor, he will be nothing more than a tool for SEIU and other corrupt labor unions. But that’s never mentioned here…
Afraid Creigh Deeds represents more to Virginians than ‘a vote for big labor.’ Those who have checked his record rather than just repeating Republican sound bites will know that Deeds is solid on fighting crime, promoting and funding education iniatives, protecting the environment and promoting new energy sources.
He is not seen locally or nationally as a union man and his records reflects the same. Unions really don’t control politics in right to work states like Virginia nearly as much as those with a political agenda would have us think.
“McDonnell is opposed to women and minorities holding jobs. ”
Uh…Yeah….riiight….
Statements like this demonstrate just how polarized (and to some degree ignorant) the electorate has become. This is why I am a conservative independent. I have given both campaigns a fair look, and offer my analysis.
I like Deeds. I think he is a decent guy. When he says he is a moderate, you can believe him, because his voting record supports his assertion. He’s historically voted liberally on social issues such as life, gay-marriage, been rather moderate on taxes and spending. He’s voted conservatively on issues dealing with illegal immigration. He’s been moderate on the 2nd Ammendment, and by all accounts, is a good family man. I like the fact that he drove the passage of Megan’s Law in Virginia.
McDonnell is a decent guy too. He is a conservative. His votes support this assertion. He’s voted conservatively on social issues, and on fiscal issues as well. He is solid on the 2nd Ammendment too. He is also a good family man. He has worn the uniform
What gives McDonnell the edge with me, is he has a detailed plan to address the challenges facing Virginia, and has done a great job articulating this plan at meetings that I have attended and the debates. These plans have been analyzed by the press, and have drawn praise from the analysts. His campaign has been much more upbeat, inspirational and positive, but to be fair, he can afford to be since he has lead in the polls for the entire race. Deeds has run a poorly managed campaign. His plans lack specificity, and he has seemed somewhat evasive during the public events at which I have heard him speak, and he could have done a better job articulating his plan during the debates. I suspect he is wrestling with the backlash against Democrats at the National level surrounding Healthcare, and has decided to avoid being pinned down on any issue. His campaign has been very negative, and to some degree intellectually dishonest. I see this as an error in judgement, getting bad advice from his campaign, more than a character flaw.
McDonnell will win the election, no doubt about it. He has lead in every poll, except the one right after Deeds had his stunning primary victory. What that should tell you is Deeds was viewed as better than Moran or Macauliff by the electorate, and when compared to McDonnell, Deeds is viewed as lacking. Deed hass gotten about all of the mileage he is going to get out of the “Thesis”, and the McDonnell campaign has weathered the storm. Having been both an undergrad and a masters candidate, and having read the thesis, I can see it for what is was: a student at a conservative institution, writing a masters thesis that would pass with a good grade. His votes to help with child care for working mothers, strengthen penalties for domestic violence. He encouraged his daughter to serve in a combat role in the US Army in Iraq. He is proud of the fact that she is a strong independent woman. I have met her, and she has nothing but love and respect for her Dad. That doesn’t sound like someone who want’s to keep women “barefoot and pregnant”.
Starry, to your other..er…point, please show me where you get your claim that McDonnell is against minorities holding jobs.
Tell It Straight,
Thanks for your cogent comparison between the 2 candidates. How refreshing to read some real reasons for voting for a candidate!
The social issues bother me when looking at McDonnell. I don’t mean the thesis social issues. I think that McDonnell has moved past most of that. However, the issues that have been dealt with legislatively do bother me as a pro choice Virginian. I also opposed the marriage amendment. I see it as a civil rights issue. McDonnell was supportive of it.
Once we get past the social issues, probably one would do about as well as the other with the issues that most of us face day to day. That is a good thing for Virginians because we do have a few safety nets in place on the social issues.
Moon Howler,
Considering your positions on social issues, I can’t argue with your rationale for supporting Deeds, nor would I attempt to take issue with your positions. I find that on issues closest to our hearts, all the rethoric in the world won’t turn us away from our most deeply held beliefs. On these issues, we vote our values, whatever they may be.
My main objection to Starry Flight’s comment was that it was a gratuitous assertion. First, Bob McDonnell does not object to women and minorites holding jobs. There is not a single vote that anyone can point to which would support this argument. Secondly, Bob McDonnell is not an “extremist” by any reasonable standard. Is he conservative? yes, without a doubt. I wouldn’t tolerate someone characterizing Deeds as an “extremist” either. His votes and positions would put him pretty much center-left on most issues, but center right on more than a few.
Like I said, I have looked at both candidates closely, and McDonnell’s positions track more closely with my own. With that said, if Deeds should manage another come-from-behind victory, I am not going to pack Mama and the babies and head to Idaho. If Bob McDonnell continues as polls would indicate, and is victorious in November, folks on this board shouldn’t be packing up and moving to Montgomery county either. Both are decent, honorable men. Let’s take the heat off the rethoric, and talk issues.
“A vote for Deeds is a vote for big labor, he will be nothing more than a tool for SEIU and other corrupt labor unions. But that’s never mentioned here…’
I thought VA was a Right-to-Work state? Until that changes, I doubt that union support for Deeds would put him in their pockets. On this issue, we need to be concerned about the make-up of the legislature, as any move to make VA a union state would have to take place there. WOuld he sign such legislation? Perhaps, but I doubt the unions could get that pushed through the HOD and Senate in the single term he would be afforded, no more than I believe that the pro-life McDonnell could single-handedly get VA to seriously restrict abortion, or, ahem, get all the women and minorities fired from their jobs….THINK PEOPLE!
Tell, not sure how most people here are voting. I expect it will be a pretty mixed bag. I agree with you however, about pushing aside all the rhetoric and talking about issues.
You are also correct about HOD and Senate being the place to watch for union ‘over-influence.’ I am not an anti-union person, I just generally don’t have a great deal of sympathy, if that makes sense. Any threat to a change in status of Virginia being a Right to Work state would push me over the edge though.
McDonnell wrote in his thesis when he was a student at a Virginia college that women shouldn’t have careers and work. This is an extremist position. The vast majority of Virginians believe in equal rights for all. This is not the direction to which most Virginians want to go. For these reasons, McDonnell will most likely lose this election.
“McDonnell wrote in his thesis when he was a student at a Virginia college that women shouldn’t have careers and work. This is an extremist position. ”
It wasn’t always an “extremist” position. And which university was he attending? A very conservative, evangelical-based Christian university. Lest we forget, this was during the time where “women’s lib” and the ERA were major political issues, and conservative Christian Americans still reeling from Roe v. Wade. Perhaps you might want to try viewing things in the context of when this was written. Our founding fathers, were they “extremists”? How about those who fought against slavery? You argue from a point-of-view that women working outside of the home and single-parent households have always been the norm. Unless you were born in like 1980, I am here to tell you that they were not the norm. And, many studies have shown that there is a big trade-off that happens when both parents work, and the responsibility of raising children foisted onto after-care programs. Remember, many of the programs and child-care infrastructure in-place today, to care for the children of working parents did not exist when McDonnell wrote his thesis. We didn’t have the laws in place that said a child below a certain age cannot be left alone for an extended period of time. I was a latch-key kid in the third grade. Remember those?
So, I guess by your rationale, Sonia Sotamayer should not be a Supreme Court Justice, because of things she wrote in law school, and Obama is turely an extremist, because of his beliefs and views that he held in college that are in direct contradiction to traditionally held societal views in America. As I said before, your assertion is gratuitous, and therefore can be refuted by an equally gratuitous assertion.
You must think that McDonnell wrote this thesis to subjugate women. I read the thesis, and I understand the historical context in which it was written, as well as the academic atmosphere of the institution where it was written. I don’t see it as “anti-woman”. I see it as a pro-family work written from a conservative perspective, during a time of great challenge for the traditional nuclear family. I guess I must be an extremist too.
Oh, and I’d like to place a wager on the outcome of the election, if you are so sure that the “extremist” will lose…if you are game Starryflights.